Category Archives: Terraforming Mars

Scientists are hoping to turn Mars green one day according to a new study in Icarus. The journal details Basically NASA is helping scientists learn how they might be able to start up food production or more on the red planet. In-Situ Resource Utilization, basically replacing objects commonly found on Earth, for use in both establishing a community there or farming for people back on our planet. But, tossing a bunch of Miracle-Gro in a space shuttle isnt very practical. Researchers are trying to estimate how hard it would be to have the soil on our neighboring planet grow organic life. Its a herculean task that would dramatically alter Mars if it proved successful. But, for the moment, actually terraforming the planet is the stuff of science fiction. But, one day, it could really be possible if multiple societies put their minds to the task. Regolith, Mars soil, contains elements like calcium, potassium, iron, and magnesium. But, the rocks on the surface are so oxidized, along with concerns about the atmospheric conditions that there is a long way to go. For now, keep your eyes to the sky.

Soil on Mars is known to contain the majority of planet essential nutrients, but many questions of both the benefits (e.g. bioavailability of present nutrients) and limitations (e.g. extent of toxins) of Martian soil as a plant growth medium remain unanswered, researchers said in the Icarus article.

Andrew Palmer, an ocean engineering and marine sciences associate professor told Florida Tech News, These findings underscore that ISRU food solutions are likely at a lower technological readiness level than previously thought. Our strategy was, rather than saying this simulant grows plants so that means we can grow plants everywhere on Mars, we need to say that Mars is a diverse planet,

Simulating the mineral makeup or salt content of these Martian mixtures can tell us a lot about the potential fertility of the soil. Things like nutrients, salinity, pH are part of what make a soil fertile and understanding where Mars soils are at in that spectrum is key to knowing if they are viable and if not, are there feasible solutions that can be used to make them viable, Laura Fackrell, UGA geology doctoral candidate told The Next Web.

Do you think we will see Mars growing food within our lifetimes? Or is that just a little bit too far-fetched? Let us know down in the comments!

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Scientists Are Hoping to Turn Mars Green - ComicBook.com

Tired of sitting at home with nothing to do? Physical board games are expensive, but some are online. If you enjoyed Wingspan, try these other virtual board games.

Who doesn't love a good board game? Video games have come a long way since Pongand board games aren't just the same old boring round of Monopoly and Candy Land they used to be. Wingspan was one of the hottest board games of 2019 and with its recent release on Nintendo Switch, many gaming fans have learned just how much fun virtual board games can be.

RELATED:10 Tabletop Games That Have A Great Online Version

It's not always easy going out to play board games so sometimes doing so in the virtual space is the way to go. Not all adaptations of board games are created equal, so those looking to give them a try need to know which ones are going to provide countless hours of fun.

For gamers that have played every wild version of Risk out there, Small World could be the next step in their virtual board gaming adventures. This eight-time award-winning game has players fighting for map dominance with fantasy races that all have unique randomized traits.A battle between Flying Rat Men and Diplomat Orcs can be utterly fascinating fun. The game is widely available for PC, Android, andiOS.

From award-winning game designer Jamey Stegmaier, Scythe is set in an alternate history of the 1920s. Players have to collect resources, create infrastructure, and do battle with giant steampunk mechs. Kickstarter backers contributed over $1.8 million dollars when the game was first printed showing that board game fans understand Scythe's quality on sight alone.

Scythe: Digital Edition was released on Steam in 2018 and now even has a cell phone version making it easier to play than ever before.

Terraforming Mars is considered by many to be one of the best board games released in 2016 and to currently is ranked among the top five games of all time on BoardGameGeek. In Terraforming Mars players are tasked with making Mars inhabitable for human settlers. The game has five expansions that will keep gameplay fresh for a long time and is available on PC, Android, and iOS.

Sagrada is one of those games anyone can pick up and play. Trying to build the most beautiful stained glass window is simple at first with many complexities for players to learn and explore. The game is particularly fun to play on the Nintendo Switch with friends. it's simple, quick, and great to pick up and play.

The box for the physical game of Gloomhaven weighs over twenty-two pounds so having an easier to access virtual version might be the way to go. The game is a legacy styled game, which means the choices and actions the players take will affect the game going into the future.The digital edition of Gloomhavenis currently available on Steam Early Access.

Ticket to Ride is a unique set collection game that has players trying to collect sets of similarly colored cards to build a massive railroad system. The gamehas won over 35 awards including the prestigiousSpiel des Jahresso there's no denying it's good. With multiple maps across dozens of countries, Ticket to Ride can keep players busy for hours.

RELATED:TCG: 5 Best Trading-Card Video Games Ever (& 5 You Forgot Existed)

The game and all of its expansions are usually cheap and easy to buy during any Steam saleand it's available on just about every platform.For those with friends too busy to play it'seven possible to play Ticket to Ride against an Amazon Alexa.

COVID-19 haschanged the world of gaming and this game provides the ultimate power fantasy of taking not only one, but multiple pandemics down. Pandemic has players working together cooperatively to completely cure multiple pandemics before they take over the globe. Each player has special powers only they can use and it takes cunning to win. The game has multiple difficulty levels making it approachable for gamers of any skill.

It's just not always possible to get friends to play games, even in the digital realm. Thankfully, there are fantastic solo games! No, this isn't just solitaire, Onirim has players navigating the realm of dreams to escape the dream labyrinth before time runs out. The app version of the game even includes one of its expansions for free making this an excellent value.

Social deduction games have taken the world by storm just look at Among Us! Ifa gaming group loves hunting down the imposter they'llfind that Secret Hitler is the perfect virtual board game for them to try. The game made $1,479,046 in its initial Kickstarter run showing just how excited board game fans were to try this game.

RELATED:10 Board Games Worth The High Price Tag

The game has players trying to kill Hitler and stop the fascist's rise to power before the second world war. The game has been praised for its bold yet educational take on a difficult topic while providing amazing gameplay. Not only is the game free to print and play on the game maker's website, but there's even a website to play it for free with friends for any boardgame fans interested in giving it a try.

Tabletop Simulator is the epitome of virtual board games that no one will want to miss. The game allows people to play virtually any board game as long as it can be programmed into the engine. The number of games that be played using Tabletop Simulator boggles the mind. This unique sim game allows fans to add in their own content through the Steam Workshop making it so the number of choices available just keeps on expanding.

NEXT:Top 10 Board Games Based On Gaming Franchises

Next 10 Best Open-World Maps In PC History, Ranked

Linnea Capps is an award-winning author who has worked writing within the gaming industry for over ten years. Ey has worked for esports teams, holds speedrun world records, and now writes about eir favorite games for Game Rant. When not writing about games, ey work on eir upcoming visual novel about marbles (no that's not a joke).

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10 Virtual Board Games To Try If You Enjoyed Wingspan | Game Rant - GameRant

If we look to the skies on a clear night we get a glimpse of the expanse of space and the planets beyond our own. It may make you wonder, could humans ever live somewhere other than Earth?

Living in space

If we consider living outside of the Earths atmosphere then we have already achieved this; Russian cosmonaut, Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov holds the record for the most consecutive days in space. Polyakov stayed aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months during one trip. The most time spent on a celestial body is a Moon visit in December 1972. During that trip, Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan of NASAs Apollo 17 mission spent more than three days on the lunar surface.

Lunar return

The International Space Station has had continuous human occupancy for more than 20 years (since November 2nd 2000). Now NASA plans to establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon too, within the next decade, with its Artemis program. This should also help to advance other programs aiming to put humans on another planet, Mars.

Living on Mars

If humans are ever to inhabit a planet other than Earth, then Mars is the most likely candidate. The surfaces of Mars and Earth were once very similar. Both had heat, moisture and thick atmospheres. While we retained these ideal living conditions on Earth, things took a turn for the worst for Mars about three to four billion years ago. If we want to live there we would have to work out how to turn back time.

Traveling to the red planet is possible, in theory, and could take between six to nine months. There is a big difference between surviving in a controlled living environment and actually living on a planet though. To really live on Mars we would need to terraform the planet.

Terraforming Mars

Terraforming the red planet would require the creation of a thicker atmosphere with breathable air and soil that can ultimately grow edible plants. Mars does contain a lot of carbon dioxide, most of which is bound in solid form in its polar caps. Even if all this was released into gaseous form, it would not be enough to create an atmosphere thick enough to hold in heat, water and other necessary gases. The latest NASA rover (Perseverance) on its way to Mars should land on February 18, 2021. One piece of equipment included on the Perseverance rover is the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), intended to produce oxygen from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide, on an experimental scale. Even if successful, this technology could only create small amounts of oxygen.

Could plants be introduced as a means of converting carbon dioxide into oxygen? Such plants would require nitrogen rich soil and the right levels of sunlight for photosynthesis. Neither are available. Cyanobacteria may do the job more efficiently, but it would take a long time, and much of the oxygen would still be lost without a thick enough atmosphere. A day on Mars last 25 hours, a year lasts 1.9 Earth years. Mars has four seasons, just like Earth, but they last almost twice as long as our seasons.For the foreseeable future, any human inhabitants of Mars would need to be comfortable living in controlled, indoor environments. At least the last year would have given them some training in this regard.

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Dr Naomi Lavelle: Is there (or could there be) life on Mars? - Irish Examiner

Over at Nvidia, Nicole Castro has posted an excellent write-up on how director Peter Hyoguchi and producer Joan Webbs epic space adventure, Gods of Mars, is being produced with a game-changing combination of real-time rendered graphics, virtual production, and miniatures.

The movie, currently in production, tells the story of a fighter pilot who leads a team against rebels in a battle on Mars, a planet now filled with cities after decades of terraforming. The project features a mix of cinematic visual effects with live-action elements to bring intergalactic scenes to the big screen.

The film crew originally planned to make the movie primarily with miniatures but switched gears once they were introduced to real-time NVIDIA RTX graphics and Unreal Engine.

Hyoguchi and Webb, working from an Epic MegaGrant, brought together experienced VFX professionals and game developers to create the film. The virtual production started with scanning the miniature models and animating them in Unreal Engine. Ive been working as a CGI and VFX supervisor for 20 years, and I never wanna go back to older workflows, said Hyoguchi. This is a total pivot point for the next 100 years of cinema everyone is going to use this technology for their effects.

Check out a behind-the-scenes look at how the filmmakers are harnessing virtual production and real-time rendering to produce their film:

Hyoguchi and team produced rich, photorealistic worlds in 4K to create futuristic scenes with a combination of NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 GPU-powered Lenovo ThinkStation P920 workstations, ASUS ProArt Display PA32UCX-P monitors, Blackmagic Design cameras and DaVinci Resolve, and the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24.

The films live-action are supported by LED walls with real-time rendered graphics created from Unreal Engine. Actors are filmed on-set, with a virtual background projected behind them. To keep the set minimal, the team only builds what actors will physically interact with, and then uses the projected environment from Unreal Engine for the rest of the scenes.

Check out more behind-the-scenes breakdowns of the films production in this Creating a Universe video:

One big advantage of working with digital environments and assets is its real-time lighting. When previously working with CGI, Hyoguchi and his team would pre-visualize everything inside a grayscale environment. Then theyd wait hours for one frame to render before seeing a preview of what an image or scene could look like.With Unreal Engine, Hyoguchi can have scenes ray-trace rendered immediately with lights, shadows, and colors. He can move around the environment and see how everything would look in the scene, saving weeks of pre-planning.

Real-time rendering also saves money and resources. Hyoguchi doesnt need to spend thousands of dollars for renderfarms or wait two weeks for one shot to complete rendering. The RTX-powered ThinkStation P920 renders everything in real-time, which leads to more iterations, making way for a much more efficient, flexible and faster creative workflow.

Ray tracing is what makes this movie possible, said Hyoguchi. With NVIDIA RTX and the ability to do real-time ray tracing, we can make a movie with low cost and less people, and yet I still have the flexibility to make more creative choices than Ive ever had in my life.

Head over to the Nvidia website to learn more about the project and underlying technology.

Source: Nvidia

Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

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'Gods of Mars': Virtual Production and NVIDIA RTX Real-Time Graphics at Work - Animation World Network

Its not long now until the most ambitious human mission to the Red Planet arrives there. The Perseverance rover is on course and well on track of making a perfect landing in the Jezero Crater in February 2021, and NASA is planning to make a spectacle of it.

The comprehensive coverage of the Perseverance rover includes everything from the Interactive Virtual Launch Packet, a 3D model of the rover, stickers, posters, and much more. You can find them all by accessing this link.

Aside from this resources package, NASA wants people to be a part of all this, so it set up a watch online guide for the landing, complete with the calendar of upcoming events.

Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars on February 18, with the broadcast from Mission Control expected to start at 11:15 a.m. PST/2:15 p.m. EST. Following that moment, we are promised daily news and images from Mars on a specially created website.

Perseverance is based on the same platform as the Curiosity rover. Developed by JPLs Mars Science Laboratory, it is about the size of a car and packs a wealth of instruments for the exploration of the neighboring planet.

As the first of its kind to target long-term goals, the rover will look for signs of life, track natural resources and hazards, assess the habitability of the environment, and even try to generate oxygen in what is the first attempt humans have ever made at terraforming another planet.

It will also pick-up and store rock samples in canisters placed in strategic areas, for a future mission to pick them up and bring them to Earth.

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Mars Rover Landing Coming, Here's How to Enjoy It All - autoevolution

One of the main storylines of season 4 is the conflict on the newly discovered planet called Ilus, or New Terra. A group of Belter refugees (people who live a hardscrabble life in our solar system's asteroid belt) has colonized the seemingly hospitable planet. However, they are quickly set upon by a UN-backed research group called Royal Charter Energy (RCE) who wants to drive them from their new home.

While Ilus wasn't inhabited when the Belters and RCE arrived, it clearly was at one time. James Holden (Steven Strait) is sent to the planet to monitor the situation. But when he arrives, alien structures that appear to be powered by the presence of the protomolecule spring to life, threatening the Belter colonists and RCE crew alike. Holden has some protomolecule traces in him, which is what allows him to see the specter of Joe Miller (Thomas Jane), who was subsumed into the powerful blue goo earlier in the series. The specter is the protomolecule coming to Holden in Miller's form, but eventually what's left of Miller's consciousness gains enough control to act independently, and he is able to help Holden put an end to the chaos on Ilus.

Miller leads Holden to an ancient alien device (no, not those Ancient Aliens) that is leftover from an intergalactic war long, long ago. With the help of Elvi Okoye (Lyndie Greenwood), a geologist with Royal Charter Energy, Holden delivers Miller to the device, which shuts down the structures on Ilus. It's a victory for humankind on the frontiers of space, but it's unlikely to be the last alien threat the species faces.

Read more:

The ending of The Expanse season 4 explained - Looper

Just a little over a week separates us from the moment when the Perseverance rover is scheduled to take off on its mission to Mars. The American space agency is targeting a 7:50 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 30 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, but that may change depending on a variety of factors.

To get the hype up, NASA launched in the previous years a naming competition for the rover (Perseverance won) asked people to digitally write their names on chips that would travel to the Red Planet (about 11 million names were entered) and even had a live feed of the rovers bay up and running the whole time the machine was being assembled.

It only makes sense for the launch to be a very in-your-face event. NASA will kick off pre-launch festivities on Monday, July 27, with a pre-launch news conference and science briefing, On Tuesday, some more briefings will follow, this time related to the sample return part of the mission, and another news conference is scheduled for Wednesday, July 29.

On the day of the launch, NASA will air live the start of the mission on the NASA Television Youtube channel (video attached below) and the agencys website. By 11:30 a.m. EDT, the launch should all be done with, and a post-launch briefing is scheduled.

If you still have mixed feelings about Perseverance, you should know this: the rover is the single most important machine humans have sent to another planet. Not only is it tasked with all the chores described above, but it is also the first piece of hardware to be sent to Mars as part of the countrys Moon to Mars exploration approach that will culminate, some hope by the end of the current decade, with the first humans setting foot on another planet.

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Perseverance Rover Launches on July 30, Here's How to Watch - autoevolution

Tim Overkamp shows the game "The Settlers of Catan." Britta Pedersen/dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images hide caption

Tim Overkamp shows the game "The Settlers of Catan."

Long before the coronavirus pandemic, tabletop board games were having something of a renaissance, with popular games like The Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride becoming mainstream additions to family game nights.

Then, COVID-19 hit and, as Quartz reported, it changed how many hobbyist board game creators approached the industry. But for many people who suddenly found themselves stuck at home under lockdown, the pandemic also spurred newfound interest in strategy games that require creativity and concentration. Board game hobbyists had more time to spend learning about new games coming out, while newbies to the scene were discovering a world beyond classics like Monopoly and Clue.

Then, on March 30, the board game Frosthaven the dungeon crawling, highly-anticipated sequel to the hit game Gloomhaven surpassed its funding goal of $500,000 on Kickstarter in mere hours. Today, it is the most-funded board game on the site ever, with nearly $13 million pledged toward funding the game's development. Only two projects have ever crowdsourced more funding on the site.

Frosthaven's success seemed to exemplify a shift that has been happening in the tabletop gaming community for years: toward games that are not only focused on strategy and adventure, but also a new type of funding model where fans have more say than ever in which games move from the idea stage to their living rooms. And hobbyist tabletop games are a different breed of entertainment altogether.

"You have mass market games, which are Monopoly and everything that you find at Target or Toys "R" Us, and you have hobbyist games, which you typically find at your FLGS your friendly local gaming store," said Cree Wilson, the programming and tabletop gaming manager for Comicpalooza. "Then there's this blurry line of stuff in between, which I've heard sometimes called entertainment gaming, and it's games selling tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of copies, but isn't selling millions yet."

For many of these smaller games, funding from fans has proved essential. Hasbro, the company that makes games like Monopoly and Connect 4, earns hundreds of millions each year through everything from game sales and licensing deals to its TV and film business. But funding models are far different for newer or smaller game makers. These makers have become part of one of the country's most popular quarantine hobbies, but they've done so through a mini-economy that relies on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter.

It makes for a unique experience that can line creators up for success and it isn't specific to Frosthaven. Games like Dark Souls, Ankh: Gods of Egypt, Cthulhu: Death May Die and Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon are among those that earned multiple millions through crowdfunding.

Creators use Kickstarter like a social media site, an advertisement and a fundraising tool all in one, and they use it more successfully than nearly any other game creators on the site. In 2019, fans pledged more than $176 million toward tabletop games up 6.8% over the previous year, according to Kickstarter data gathered by the entertainment site Polygon. In all, more than 1 million people pledged to games on the site last year.

For fans, the benefits of pledging can go beyond the games themselves. Fans can earn special gifts from game makers in exchange for their support. And often, pledging toward a game can end up costing less than waiting to buy it in a store.

Another factor motivating fans, Wilson says, is fear of missing out.

"The FOMO on Kickstarter is real," Wilson said, adding that often people will pledge because they don't want to miss out on a game their friends will be getting.

It's a feeling that Ash Mehra can identify with. Mehra, a 27-year-old board game fan and medical resident in Miami, said she checks Kickstarter every day, and has spent about $1,200 on the site, pledging to games like the Terraforming Mars Big Box and The Age of Atlantis. She said there "definitely is a visceral thrill, an endorphin rush" to watching games she has pledged money to not only reach early fundraising targets, but then stretch them due to momentum on the site.

Fans like Mehra are already on Kickstarter either awaiting their favorite game-makers next move or looking for new games to try out so connecting with them and pulling in funding pledges is almost inevitable.

"For the board game community, there's a culture of looking on Kickstarter ... and being more willing to fund things," said Isaac Childres, the CEO of Cephalofair Games and creator of Forge War, Gloomhaven and Frosthaven. "It's like a larger avenue for board game creators to use that automatically picks up a following."

This is what makes Kickstarter so attractive to individual makers and less attractive to other gaming industries like video game makers. It takes a lot of startup value to create your own video game, for instance, but for board games, you only need a good enough idea and a well-placed Kickstarter page to gauge public interest.

Once a maker has proven success, it's easier to build on that success. Raising millions from fans "is a pretty strong sign of there's demand," said Ethan Mollick, an associate professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who has studied crowdfunding, entrepreneurship and games. "And I can go to investors. And that also means that if I deliver a good game, I can go back and do, [for example] Fire Haven."

It's not a perfect system. Childres says he devotes much of his success to Kickstarter, but adds that there are "upper limits" to the size of the community on the site. While their engagement is deep, he said, it can only carry a game so far.

"When GloomHaven was published and all those people on Kickstarter got their copy [and started] raving about it, that's when it sort of was able to reach a wider audience outside of Kickstarter."

And there are drawbacks to the funding technique, too. Creators are responsible for everything if their goals are reached. They have to print the games and send them to their customers on their own a process that can be grueling, time-consuming and even detrimental. One board game creator miscalculated the amount of money it would cost to ship games and lost his house due to the unexpected financial burden.

But, for many creators, the positives outweigh the negatives.

Childres said it's hard to imagine where he might be without crowdfunding. Offering his game Forge War as an example, he said had he "somehow found the money to publish it on my own and get it into stores, I don't think anyone would have paid attention to it."

Now, he's one of the most successful hobbyist tabletop board game creators in the country.

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A Look Into The Wild Economy Of Tabletop Board Game Funding - NPR

Adventure Times: Distant Lands "BMO" - Courtesy of HBO Max

Despite all evidence of the world around them falling apart, most characters in Adventure Time: Distant Lands maintain a contagious enthusiasm. Perhaps more than any does BMO.

The first episode of the four-part HBO Max limited series Adventure Time: Distant Lands centers on the brave little robot. BMOs adventure begins with him on a ship destined to terraforming Mars. And it isnt long before BMO laughs in the face of danger, happily fixing the hole in his ship by welding a Band-Aid over it.

Soon after, he meets another robot in space, one that looks like Plankton from SpongeBob SquarePants condensed into a little ball. BMO names his new friend Olive. Olive, much to BMOs chagrin, zips the ship past its original destination and takes BMO through trippy space travel akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Eventually, BMO crashes on a troubled planet. And even though he loses an arm, he is ecstatic to meet a young rabbit scientist, whom he encourages to think up her own name. She settles on Y5.

Much like Finn the Humans parents in the original series, Y5s parents are dismissive and demeaning. They look down on Y5, and tell her to scrap BMO for parts. But BMOs contagious heroicness leads Y5 to her own coming-of-age story.

Its too simple to characterize BMO as childlike. Throughout Adventure Time, and especially in Adventure Time: Distant Lands, BMO is sanguine in the trials and tribulations of his maturity.

But BMO always makes the adult decision to heed the cry of dangers. So often does he rush into action that it takes the sound of an alarm for Y5 to realize she misses BMO.

With the help of his new friends Y5 and Olive, who plays the Jake the Dog role to BMOs Finn, BMO helps save the planet on numerous occasions. He also has incredible one-liners that make him a 21st century Adam West Batman.

He died as he lived, sucking big time, BMO says, as a villain is sucked into outer space.

And even when BMO is at the depths of despair, with his systems shut off and his hardware scattered and littered in the dangerous jungle pod, he calmly and patiently awaits the good he knows will arrive.

Adventure Times: Distant Lands BMO Courtesy of HBO Max

After helping Y5 stand up to her parents, BMO is saved by his new rabbit friend. They save the day together, and BMO only leaves the planet after the young scientist decrees that all the citizens have to learn how to get along and share the limited remaining resources after the villains took most for themselves.

BMO ponders on his ship how Y5 will probably become Mayor of the planet.

BMO ends the episode on a new, strange planet. He looks to the horizon and finds a young Finn and Jake playing outside their treehouse. Ever the optimist, BMO is excited about this new adventure.

Theres much to admire about Adventure Time: Distant Lands. Obviously, having new Adventure Time content is great. Each episode is an hour-long, even better. But retaining the story, humor, and humanity of the characters is the best.

Which Adventure Time character do you wish had their own special as part of Adventure Time: Distant Lands? Let us know in the comments below!

Adventure Time: Distant Lands Episode 1 is available now on HBO MAX.

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Adventure Time: Distant Lands Premiere BMO the Hero - Show Snob

Starting in July the window opens when missions to Mars can be easily sent across the interplanetary gulf. If all goes well, three such missions, mounted by NASA, China and the United Arab Emirates, will depart Earth for the Red Planet. The number of missions, who is launching them and their complexity illustrate the importance Mars has for purveyors of space exploration policy.

NASA Perseverance is currently scheduled to launch somewhere between July 30 and August 15. It will land in the Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021. Perseverance will roll about the Martian landscape looking for signs of life past and present and collecting rock and soil samples for later pickup and delivery to Earth. The rover will also carry a helicopter drone that is envisioned as the first aircraft to fly in the skies of another world.

Chinas Tianwen-1 is the most complex, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The name translates roughly to the quest for heavenly truth. The rover is much smaller than Perseverance and contains six scientific instruments. While the rover spends 90 Martian days rolling about studying Mars at close range, the orbiter will examine it from a wider perspective for about a Martian year, serving as a communication relay.

The United Arab Emirates mission is a small orbiter called Hope. Hope is scheduled to launch on a Japanese rocket and will spend 200 days cruising to Mars. The probe will enter an elliptical orbit around the Red Planet. Hope will spend at least two years studying aspects of the Martian atmosphere.

Why are so many missions being sent to Mars in a single month? The answer is different for each player.

NASAs primary mandate since its beginning has been to explore space. The space agency has been sending robot probes to Mars since the Mariner 4 in the mid-1960s. NASA also has a renewed mandate to send astronauts beyond low Earth orbit to Mars as well as other destinations. Each robotic probe that flies by, orbits or lands on Mars is a prelude to the day when Americans step out of the Mars lander and tread the face of a second alien world. The human expedition to Mars, which will stop by the moon to top off rocket fuel created by lunar water, will be a singular, historic event of this century, dwarfing the Apollo moon landing.

China is mounting an expedition to Mars to enhance its status as a major space power. Beijing envisions its space program, which includes a planned crewed space station and several robotic expeditions to the moon leading to a crewed landing, as a means to define itself as a superpower, first as a peer of the United States, but in the long term to supplant America.

The UAE, conscious that oil and gas are beginning to lose their appeal, has embarked on creating a high-tech economy. The Hope mission, the first of its kind by any Arab nation, is part of that strategy.

Every iota of data gleaned by these missions, as well as everyone past and future, will support the grandest Mars vision of all. SpaceXs Elon MuskElon Reeve MuskNASA, China and the UAE are scheduled to send missions to Mars in July Kanye tweets he's running for president How competition will make the new space race flourish MORE has made no secret of his desire to found a city on the Red Planet, thus establishing, as the space visionary Robert Zubrin has advocated, a second branch of human civilization. The idea is to spark the pioneering spirit on Earth by opening a human frontier on the fourth planet from the sun, enabling innovation and optimism that has been sorely lacking in recent years. Coincidentally, Mars would become an insurance policy for the human race, ensuring that it does not become extinct due to some calamity, such as the object that crashed into the Earth, killing the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

The ultimate dream is to use terraforming techniques to transform Mars into a habitable world, one of oceans and forests and an atmosphere that humans can breathe. Terraforming the Red Planet into a blue world would be the work of centuries. The process would restore Mars to what it once was billions of years ago, before a slow-motion calamity created the arid, chilly planet that we know today.

Musks dream, should it be fulfilled, would be as consequential as the emergence of life from the ocean to the land. It would constitute the evolution of humanity into a multi-planet species.

Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and politics, has published a political study of space exploration entitled Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond. He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. He is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, the LA Times, and the Washington Post, among other venues.

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NASA, China and the UAE are scheduled to send missions to Mars in July | TheHill - The Hill